Pickled Raisins -- A Medieval Syrian Recipe

I am thoroughly enchanted with Scents and Flavors, translated by Charles Perry.

ISBN  978-1-4798-5628-2

The recipes seem so do-able and intriguing, with flavor combinations I would not normally think of using and techniques easily replicated in the modern kitchen.  I previously tried one of its pickled lemon recipes, with great success.  So much so that I continue to keep a jar of it in my refrigerator whenever I can get lemons.  They are an excellent additive to sandwiches as well as a flavorful relish with any sort of cooked meat.  Read my post on it here.

Therefore I was excited to try another recipe.  There are so many I want to try!  I decided to go with another pickled something, and I was inspired to do the pickled raisins after pruning my mint plant.  This recipe, found on page 215, is #8.38 in the section on various types of sour and salty pickles:

The eighth type is raisin pickles, of which there are several kinds

The first kind

Pick over raisins to remove the useless ones, wash the rest, and dry in a sieve.  Take the smallest ones, wash, and pound in a mortar with mint and wine vinegar; when smooth, strain with vinegar several times until nothing is left of the raisins in the sieve.  Take stems of fresh mint and remove the remaining leaves from the stalks.  Put with the raisins into a pickling jar, alternating a layer of raisins and a generous layer of fresh mint until the jar is nearly filled.  Pour in the vinegar that was strained with the raisins.  If too sour, add honey, sugar, or date syrup, according to the disposition of the individual.  Add some mixed spices and ginger, set aside, and use after six or seven days.  If you want, put in petals of Nisibin roses when they are in season.

My Redaction

For the liquid:
52 grams golden raisins
3 grams fresh mint leaves
3/4 cup (6 ounces) white wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon honey
3/4 teaspoon mixed spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, grains of paradise, pepper, saffron)
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger

For the pickle:
More raisins
More fresh mint leaves



My Notes

My goal was to fill one pint canning jar.

I did not use rose petals of any kind.

To make the liquid, I started with the raisins and mint leaves and added 1/2 cup vinegar.

I blended the batch until it was finely pureed.  Then I mixed in the spices.  I tasted it and it was lovely!  Sour, slightly sweet, spicy (especially from the ginger), and very minty.  But it was thick and I suspected it was too thick for what the recipe's author intended.

Thick, like a milkshake

So I added another 1/4 cup vinegar and some honey to balance out the sourness.  This made it thinner but not thin, and I decided it would work.

I took the sterilized jar and put in a layer of raisins, tamped it down a little with a pestle, put on a layer of mint leaves and tamped that.  To fill the jar took five layers of raisins with four layers of mint in between, tamping at each layer.

When I poured the liquid over the top, I realized the problem:  it was too thick to work its way down through the layers to the bottom.  So I took a chopstick and poked it into the layers, mostly around the jar's sides, to encourage the liquid to move to the bottom.  It seemed to work, although I'm not sure how well it got into the middle of the jar.  I kept adding liquid until the jar was full.

Once it seemed full, I put the lid on and then tapped the jar a lot.  I hoped it got more liquid down to the bottom.

I still had a lot of liquid left over, so I decided to fill another jar with the raisin pickle.  This time I used dark raisins instead of the golden.  I also decided to pour some liquid over each layer as I was assembling it (after tamping).  This worked well until I ran out of liquid and still needed a little more to finish filling the jar.  So I put together another raisin/mint/vinegar puree (with dark raisins and without measuring), thinned it with a little more vinegar, and added honey and spices (without measuring).  It tasted good and I used it.

That finished the second jar.

You can see where I switched to the dark raisin puree in the top layer.

Both jars were labeled and put into the refrigerator for a week.


The Verdict

The directions, "strain with vinegar several times until nothing is left of the raisins in the sieve" had
me believe that a thick liquid was acceptable, even though most recipes for items that are pickled are in a fairly runny vinegar base.  If nothing was left, then all of the raisin should be reduced to tiny (strainable) bits.  It is why I blended it instead of straining -- I had that modern advantage and it was a way to get the mixture smooth without having to continue to strain several times.

I mixed the spices into the liquid instead of putting them at the top of the jar because it was so thick.  It seemed like they wouldn't have contact with the raisins below the top if just placed on top.

How was it?

I was surprised to see that the whole mass was thick, not liquidy or sloshy at all.  This made sense in that the raisins (dried grapes) soaked up the liquid.  What I spooned onto my plate was moist but firm and not runny.

This was all dark raisins.

The flavor was amazing.  It was spicy, almost too much at first, but I got used to it quickly.  Cinnamon, ginger, pepper, mint, sweet, sour, and more.  It made me think of chutney with the benefit of being quick and easy to assemble, and uncooked.

Initially I was put off by the whole mint leaves.  Sometimes I got a leaf in my mouth and it seemed too strong.  But after a few servings of pickled raisins, I got used to it and enjoyed it.  I think in the future I will cut them before putting them in the jar.  A chiffonade might work well.

I also tasted the mixture that was with golden raisins.  The flavors were the same -- lovely! -- but I believe the golden raisins were more tender than the dark raisins.  They were both excellent.

My guest taster and I both said, "Wow!  This is good!" as we put the pickle on sandwiches, alongside cooked meat, and sometimes just ate a spoonful.  The flavors pack a punch and really brighten whatever meal they accompany.  Although I might cut back on the ginger just a little bit.

Success!  You should look at this book!

Yum.

Celebrating the 100th Post with a Hundred-Year-Old Recipe

I was truly astonished when I realized that this is my 100th post for this blog.  How should I celebrate it?  What would be appropriate?  I struggled with that for a while.  Should I do something spectacular?  Something on the 100th page of a randomly selected cookbook?  Even though my work levels have dropped, I still have other responsibilities than cooking, so what I chose had to be reasonable in its demands.

What I settled on was using a 100 year old cookbook, which turned out to be an excellent decision for an historical recipe blog.  You see, I live in California and this year is the 100th anniversary of the Panama Pacific International Exposition, a world's fair, which was held in San Francisco.  If you know the history of that city, you know that a major earthquake followed by huge fire had ravaged the city in 1906.  The Exposition was a chance for the city to rebuild and to show to the world how wonderful it could be.  San Francisco pulled it off with style only nine years after its devastation.

http://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/images/lightshow.jpg

The fair committee created a beautiful "Jeweled City" with representations from countries around the world and from various U.S. states, along with displays of technology, agriculture, geographical wonders, and (of course) an amusements and concessions area.  You can view pictures and documents at the San Francisco Public Library website:  http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=2000041101  and learn even more about its history at http://www.ppie100.org/  (Their "Stories" page has a video with actual footage taken at the fair!)

One of the exhibitors was the Sun-Maid Raisin company and they published a book of raisin recipes, the Souvenir California Raisin Recipe Book, which they sold for 25 cents.  I found a copy of it on their iPad website, sunmaid.com, where they offer a selection of their raisin cookbooks from the last 100 years, available for individual download.  (Update 2024:  You can find the book by clicking here.)

If you go to their non-iPad/iPhone website, http://www.sunmaid.com/book/, you can get their PDF book and read a lot about the history of the company, including the discovery of Thompson Seedless grapes, the woman who became the face on the box, and how the Exposition lead to the company's widespread recognition.  It has recipes but not the historical ones.

On the introductory page of the 28 page souvenir booklet, the dedication is " 'To Mother' who in addition to her many other responsibilities is vitally interested in providing 'Good Things to Eat'..."

They point out that the recipes contained within are all prize recipes:  "We have eliminated all those that are commonplace.  We have printed in this book only those that produce the most delicate and most palatable foods."

I was amused at their blatant sales propaganda, under "The Economy" section:

Raisins, then, are economical because they supply the body with needed food-properties.  Nothing that is food is waste.  Raisins are not a luxury.  Economize by doing without other edibles that do not produce health, strength, and energy.  Never be without raisins.  Keep them always in the house.  Give them to the children after school in place of questionable candy.

There are several categories of recipes in the booklet:  bread, cookies, cake, candy (I guess they aren't of the questionable type), pie, puddings, miscellaneous dainties, and miscellaneous raisin dainties.

I selected "Raisin Puffs", which appears twice!  Once under puddings and once under raisin dainties.  I suspect some proofreading was neglected before publication but I am not bothered by this at all.  I liked it because it is a steamed pudding.

Raisin Puffs

Two eggs; 1/2 cup butter; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 cups flour; 1 cup milk; 1 cup Seeded Raisins, chopped fine.  Steam 1/2 hour in small cups.

<Note:  the other recipe says "1/2 package Seeded Raisins", which would be about 8 ounces by weight.>

Today's boxes are only 15 ounces, not the 16 ounces they used to be.

Yes, that is the entire recipe right there.  No other explanations given, I suppose because "everyone knows how to make a steamed pudding."  I decided to use my basic muffin batter mixing skills, that is, I beat the eggs and milk and sugar in one bowl, added the butter and mixed the liquids until the butter was broken up into small bits, then mixed the flour and baking powder in another bowl.  I added the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stirred until blended.  Then I folded in the finely chopped raisins.

Finely chopped using my ulu knife!

The batter was evenly divided into seven small glass bowls which were well-buttered.

Pre-steaming

The wok turned out to be the most convenient way for me to steam the puddings.  I had to do a balancing act to get the bowls all in and the cover on but it worked.  Once the water inside was boiling, I set the timer for 30 minutes and turned the heat down a little to generate steam without so much bouncing.  At 13 minutes left, I refilled the water supply with hot water and brought it back up to a boil.

After the time was up, I tested each puff with a toothpick to see if it was cooked in the middle.  They were all ready and I put them on the counter to cool.

Post-steaming

They looked for all the world like muffins, except they weren't browned from baking.  They slipped easily out of their bowls after I ran a small knife around the sides.

Before tasting them, I decided they needed a glaze, and what better to represent California than lemon juice mixed with powdered sugar?  I decided to glaze only four of them so the taste testing would include the original recipes.

The Verdict

My guest taster and I each tried an original puff and a glazed puff.  We both liked what we were eating:  the puffs were not too sweet and had a moist, dense texture with a mellow raisin muffin-like flavor.  I thought they needed a little salt in the batter but he, who eats much more salt than I do, did not feel it was necessary.

A closeup of the middle

Success!  I think the puffs would be a good substitute for muffins if you were camping or otherwise did not have an oven available.  I liked that they only steamed for 30 minutes, rather than the several hours a full-sized steamed pudding requires.

The glaze added a little bit of excitement but not as much as I had hoped for.  I enjoyed the puffs with and without the glaze.  I was worried at first about them not being cooked enough despite the toothpick test because the tidbits off the bottom of the bowls tasted a little doughy and floury.  However that was not the case once the puffs had cooled.

I would definitely do them again.  For variation, I would add some lemon or orange zest to the batter, and maybe some spices like cloves or cinnamon.  But they are fine as is and good for dessert, breakfast, or with a cup of coffee or tea.